After the Rain (ballet)


After the Rain is a ballet made by Christopher Wheeldon on New York City Ballet to music of Arvo Pärt, Tabula Rasa and Spiegel im Spiegel. The premiere took place on Saturday, January 22, 2005 at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.The final pas de deux is commonly performed separately from the remainder of the ballet.

Production

After the Rain was commissioned as a part of New York City Ballet's annual New Combinations Evening, which honors the anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth with new ballets. It was the last ballet Wheeldon created for Jock Soto before Soto's retirement in June 2005.
The first part of the ballet, set to Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa, features three couples. The second part is a pas de deux originated by Soto and Wendy Whelan, which Wheeldon said it was a "love letter, this poem to both of them as artists." The music, Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel, was sent to Wheeldon by a friend after he said he was "stressed out." According to Wheeldon, the pas de deux was created within three rehearsals. The female dancer wears flat shoes instead of pointe shoes, which Whelan was initially "miffed and confused" about as she had never been off pointe in any New York City Ballet performance. Wheeldon encourages dancers to interpret the pas de deux in their own ways, and said the worst thing dancers could do is to "act" it.
The pas de deux has since been danced by companies such as Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, The Australian Ballet and The Royal Ballet. In 2014, Whelan danced the pas de deux at her final performance with the New York City Ballet. The Royal Ballet performed the entirety of After the Rain for the first time in 2016.

Casts

New York City Balllet's Maria Kowroski and Ask la Cour performed the pas de deux on the roof of 4 World Trade Center in 2013, which has over 2 million views on Youtube as of 2016.
In light of the impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, New York City Ballet released a recording of the pas de deux featuring Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall, recorded in October 9, 2012. San Francisco Ballet streamed a performance featuring Yuan Yuan Tan and Luke Ingham, as a part of the Director's Choice program.